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Hello everyone! I am Neeva Sumaria, a 16-year-old Kenyan, who's aiming to be a marine biologist. I love documenting my experiences and sharing these insights with like-minded people. I'm dedicating my first article to the single most important carbon sink on our planet: Mangroves.
Mangrove forests are entangled ecosystems that can act as a barrier between the land and sea. Considering their adaptations to saline and brackish waters, their population has bloomed throughout the years, reaching around 60,000 hectares in Kenya alone!
Group of mangroves growing on Shimoni Island, Kenya
Why are mangroves important?
This is a commonly asked question, which can be broken down into a magnitude of reasons, which consist of the following:
Grounds for breeding and nesting
Mangroves provide a site where various species of fish such as mangrove rivulus, shellfish such as crabs and shrimp, and even birds such as blue herons can nurse and breed. It is a suitable area since their entangled roots make it especially difficult for larger predators to prey on the nursing and juvenile species.
Carbon sequestration
One of the most important characteristics of mangroves is that they are four times more capable of trapping carbon per hectare than tropical trees grown on land. This is because it is stored in both their biomass and the soil, which can help battle against one of our biggest problems: Global warming. It is important to note that this factor makes them a main source of blue carbon.
Coastal Protection
As mentioned above, mangroves are a barrier to land against the sea, therefore acting as a form of natural protection against large waves and strong winds, as well as disasters like storms or tsunamis. This is essential since it prevents excessive erosion from taking place and slows down incoming waves due to their root structure.
Pollution extractor
Industrial run-off releases harmful heavy metals such as mercury, and pollutants including total organic carbon into the sea. Mangrove roots are essential in trapping such damaging substances, to inhibit them from escaping into open waters and harming marine life.
Water Filtration
Mangroves are filtering machines! They can filter up to 90% of the salts found in seawater, as it passes through their roots. Its process of filtration is demonstrated in the set of diagrams below:
Dubai's 72km Coastal Regeneration Project
Can you imagine a mangrove forest stretching 72km long? To put it into perspective, that's around a 14-hour walk! Well, this is part of Dubai's 2040 master plan headed by URB. Their goal is to plant 100 million mangroves around their coastline. This will be a huge step towards creating a more sustainable environment to battle against the catastrophe of climate change, taking into consideration the importance mentioned above.
The CEO of URB stated:
“Dubai mangroves is a testament of how urban and environmental innovation can work in harmony as a model for cities worldwide, demonstrating the transformative power of integrating ecological preservation with urban growth. Yet this project is much more than coastal regeneration or resilience; it’s about setting a global standard for how cities can balance the needs of the planet with the needs of the people." ~ Baharash Bagherian
Baharash Bagherian's words perfectly describe the project as a whole. The needs of the people in particular, are covered in an environmentally friendly way. This is because Dubai Mangroves provides 10,000 job opportunities, revenue from ecotourism, and most importantly; a very valuable learning experience through educational programs, walks through the Mangroves with expertise, and collaborative activities revolving around conservation.
One aspect I find truly inspiring is Dubai's ability to incorporate technology into regenerating a whole new ecosystem. Being a city built from scratch, its endless dunes have become a futuristic architectural wonder. What makes this project the brightest star in a cloudless night is its undeniable use of state-of-the-art technologies. These are inclusive of drones for planting; satellite imagery to monitor coverage; and artificial energy to interpret, track, and enhance growth.
"We are changing the world with technology" ~ Bill Gates
Dubai is incorporating technology in a constructive way rather than a destructive way like most do to grow their economy. This magnificent metropolis is headed in the right direction and has planted a seed that will spread its roots all around the world!
What Is Threatening Our Bayside Roots?
It is extremely disheartening to find out that human actions are a primary threat to such valuable trees. Various reasons threaten their existence, some of which include:
Coastal Development
Such development includes the construction of hotels, industrial plants, ports, marinas, and more. The consequences of these seaside structures involve pollution from contents in ships, oil spills, and improper waste disposal. An excessive load of such pollutants can inhibit the growth of mangroves and even lead to the death of the ones surrounding that area.
Aquaculture and Production of Salt
Thousands of hectares of mangrove forests have been cleared to create commercialized areas to farm shrimp and harvest salt. It is daunting to know that shrimp farming alone has caused 38% of the world's healthy mangroves to be lost. Rather than creating a sustainable economy such as what Dubai is doing, human action is causing the reduction of a vital weapon we can use in the battle against climate change just for monetary gain.
Climate Change
The cycle of climate change will be unstoppable unless major action takes place. The release of fossil fuels into our atmosphere contributes to climate change, which increases the acidity levels in the ocean. Mangroves are adapted to a specific level of acidity, therefore when this level increases, they tend to wither and die.
Deforestation
One of the most obvious threats to mangroves is their deforestation. This can be due to multiple reasons, such as industrial use of land, commercial use of mangroves for their wood or even leaves, and building places to stay. This deforestation costs around $6 billion to $42 billion each year. Can you imagine what would happen if this money was put into conserving them instead of destroying them?
Dredging
In my country, Kenya, there is an island named Lamu where dredging was taking place to build a port. Dredging is the act of excavating sediments from the sea bed, and in this case, moving them to the area required to build a port. "The marine ecosystem in Lamu is complex in that it comprises the largest mangrove forests in Kenya", said a resident of Lamu named John Dyer. More than 4600 fishermen from Lamu had gone to court to fight against the negative effects dredging had brought to their marine environment. Even though the government compensated the fishermen for their loss, they weren't able to compensate for the damage done to the marine environment.
What Can We Do To Help?
Go Green
We can switch to a sustainable life, in terms of using less non-degradable items such as various plastics. Switching to brands that do not follow fast fashion production would also be an option since there will be fewer leftover clothes to be dumped, eventually ending up in the ocean. We can't forget the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. There are multiple ways to recycle non-degradable items like bottles, by turning them into plant pots or birdfeeders, as well as reusing many items like plastic bags.
Be An Environmental Activist
The best way to make a change is to spread knowledge. How will people make a difference without knowing the problem? Being an activist can start with something small like a blog, and stretch to something big like building an environmental organization! One small piece of activism from each person can lead to a mosaic of change!
Conservation Minded Businesses
A wide range of businesses in this generation are motivated to include a form of conservation in their entrepreneurship endeavors. A good way to implement this to help mangroves could be: "One purchase = One mangrove planted". It's a win-win for the environment and business since customers are more likely to buy from a company that helps our planet, and it's a small step toward success for our environment.
Reforestation Of Mangroves
The more the merrier! Planting more mangroves is an excellent way to reverse all the damage done to them. It doesn't have to stretch to 72km like Dubai's, even 10 can make a significant difference. The video below demonstrates my tribute to the reforestation of mangroves:
Video credit: Neeva Sumaria
In conclusion, mangroves are crucial to our planet because they are grounds for breeding and nesting, are a carbon sink, provide coastal protection, extract pollutants from the water, and are water filtering machines. Despite all these advantages, they are threatened by human activities such as coastal development, aquaculture and salt production, climate change, deforestation, and dredging. To battle against these threats, we can go green, be activists for our environment, and always have conservation in mind when starting a business and participating in reforestation efforts.
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Beautiful article Neeva lucky to have you on Untold Stories! I will make sure one day I visit Kenya and plant Mangroves :)
Wow, amazing work, keep it up. There is also a lot of mangrove restoration happening in the Kenyan coast especially at Gazi in KWALE County.
Are there any volunteer projects that we can sign up to, to help plant Mangroves? And, how long is the growth process?
The mangrove plant appears to be nature's savior of the sea✨✨✨